European Data Protection Supervisor rejects data transfer pact between the EU and US

According to a BBC report, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has said that a data transfer pact between the EU and US needs “significant improvements”.

The EU-US Privacy Shield agreement was created to replace the Safe Harbour pact and was supposed to safeguard EU citizens’ personal information when stored in the US, but in a statement EDPS Giovanni Buttarelli said that the Privacy Shield agreement was “not robust enough”.

“I appreciate the efforts made to develop a solution to replace Safe Harbour but the Privacy Shield as it stands is not robust enough to withstand future legal scrutiny.”

Safe Harbour was an agreement between the EU and US, designed to provide a “streamlined and cost-effective” way for US firms to get data from Europe without breaking EU rules. It was introduced in 2000 and struck down by the European Court of Justice in 2015.

While Mr Buttarelli’s statement does not mean the new agreement will be abandoned, but his concerns are similar to those stated by European privacy regulators in April.

The Privacy Shield agreement was intended to be ratified in June.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  data sharing  |  EU  |  privacy  |  United States